[Senko]

Am I right in assuming that the Olfactory and Taste Booster (cyberware) are only necessary to taste/smell cyber objects if your using the basic augmented reality level since if your cold and hot simming or using technomancy its a direct interface with your brain and can make you believe your tasting/smelling/feeling whatever your interacting with without the need for the actual physical interaction?

[Namikaze]

You know, I don't think this topic has ever come up.  I believe that all you'd need to smell or taste within AR is DNI, as DNI will allow the AR to stimulate the appropriate portions of the brain.  I don't think you'd need the olfactory or taste boosters to make that work.  They might make things smell or taste different in AR, perhaps?

[RHat]

Yeah, DNI let's you have "super-AR", which incorporates all the senses.

[Senko]

So I'm right and they're just for the augmented reality, goggles level interaction then excellent.

[Namikaze]

So I'm right and they're just for the augmented reality, goggles level interaction then excellent.

No.  You're wrong.

Olfactory and Taste Boosters are not "just for AR."  In fact, they aren't necessary to smell or taste in AR at all.  The only requirement to smell or taste in AR is a direct neural interface (DNI).  If you do not have DNI, then I could see the Olfactory and Taste Boosters being useful in that specific scenario - but since DNI costs all of 70¥, it doesn't make sense to consider Olfactory and Taste Boosters as "only necessary to taste/smell cyber objects."

[Senko]

Then why do the entries on them specify (amongst their other abilities) that they allow the user to smell/taste things in VR at all?

[Namikaze]

Because otherwise you'd need to be using simsense to experience these senses in VR.  Or you'd need DNI to experience the senses in AR.  I'm not saying they don't allow a user to smell or taste things in VR.  I'm just saying that this isn't the only way to smell or taste things in VR.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Not to mention all the other reasons to get enhanced smell and taste.  If you haven't read anything where someone stops because something smells (or tastes) wrong, then you're reading the wrong material for playing this. 

Olfactory boosters can take a scent (especially with a linked chemical-identification program!!) that your normal scent can't even smell and warn you that you're about to walk into an apartment filled with methane.  Taste boosters can tell you that the soybeef you're eating is 87% soy, 3% flavorings, and 10% cyanide.  Don't get so hung up on AR and VR that you forget that raw straight-up reality is its own piece of haywire ready to happen.

[Mithlas]

Olfactory boosters can take a scent (especially with a linked chemical-identification program!!) that your normal scent can't even smell and warn you that you're about to walk into an apartment filled with methane.  Taste boosters can tell you that the soybeef you're eating is 87% soy, 3% flavorings, and 10% cyanide.  Don't get so hung up on AR and VR that you forget that raw straight-up reality is its own piece of haywire ready to happen.

Very good points. I actually thought the olfactory/taste links were required to be able to receive if you weren't running cold/hot sim (thereby allowing you to sense it in AR as well as simmed VR), but I can't find an entry that clarifies whether or not that's true.
(Edit: mistakenly used booster instead of intended Link)

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

My policy is not to hunt for nitpicky rules clarifications if the essence of the concept is clear.  In order to see something in AR, you need a way to see it - an image link implant, or goggles/glasses/contacts/whatever.  In order to feel/touch something, you need a touch link, or gloves, or 'trode fingernails, or whatever.  So in order to smell something, you need either something that actually sends smells into your nose ... or else cyberware that sends 'smell signals' to your brain.

Q.E.D.

[Senko]

I work on the idea that these are the equivilent to the goggles for smell/taste hence why they're necessary for augmented reality without a link but when your cold/hot simming which includes the DNI your brain is being directly influenced to create the belief that your smelling/tasting whaetever.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

You can play it however you like, but if you want to understand the underlying concept, try to follow along.

Every sense has an implantable link, that allows you to experience that sense in AR without the need for external hardware.  Image link?  No need for goggles.  Hearing link?  No need for earbuds.  Touch link?  No need for gloves or fingernail covers.  Scent and taste links do the same thing, though because of how tough it is to do a non-implant version of these, most AR simply isn't coded with them.

To be fair, olfactory and taste boosters don't interact this way; they just give you extra dice for Perception checks involving smelling or tasting something (a bad odor, something in your drink).

[Senko]

That's what I'm trying to figure out and some replies here seem to be confusing me even more. What I thought was the case was . . .

4 levels of interaction.
Augmented Reality: Your not jacked in you just perceive programmed overlays on the world e.g. a hotel looks like a castle or a van flashing up its number and a link to more details of the company to drum up work.
Cold Sim: Your jacked in and can't see the real world but everything is processed through the device to provide a layer of protection.
Hot Sim: Your jacked in directly with no extra protection buffering you from everything so it feels more real and processes just that little faster.
Technomancy: Your as much a part of that world as the real one and can slide back and forth as desired with your own private networks.

2 types of access
Direct: You have a direct link between you and the VR world whether trodes, datajack, techomancy and because it directly interfaces with your brain you can perceive it fully whether thats by taste, smell or whatever.
Indirect: You are accessing it second hand using gloves, goggles etc and if your doing it that way you neeed something like the boosters to allow you to smell/taste programmed sensations because there's no direct link to your brain just the hardware.

[Namikaze]

Nope.

2 levels of interaction.

• AR: the icons of the world, overlain upon your natural (or enhanced) vision.  AR can also affect your other senses, though most companies stick to visual and audio AR simply because that's where the consumers are most likely to be.  That's not to say there isn't touch, smell, and taste AR - it's just unlikely you'll come across it.
• VR: total immersion in the virtual world of the Matrix.  Interaction on a neural level.  Complete replication of the human experience, even if it still looks fake enough to not be taken as real.

- Cold: standard VR for the average person.  This is the same VR as described above.
- Hot: a version of the VR-to-brain interface that amps things up to 11.  This is dangerous stuff because you're pumping a lot of data into the brain with very few (if any) filters.  For technomancers, this is their standard VR experience.
[/list]

2 types of access.

• Standard wired/wireless: this is just data communicating back and forth between devices.  The device itself receives the data and reacts accordingly.  To use the AR gloves example, your gloves will twitch and tingle when appropriate, stimulating the nerves in your hands.  If you have DNI, then your brain receives the data directly.
• Direct Neural Interface: this is where you plug your brain into the computer.  It doesn't have to be VR, but your brain is receiving the data directly.  All your senses can be affected with a DNI, making it the preferred method of interacting with the Matrix, even via AR.  To continue the AR gloves example: if you don't have AR gloves, but rather you have a trode net, your brain receives the same data that the nerves in your hands would be sending.  This means you "feel" the experience, without actually having to touch things.

FYI, you cannot experience VR without a DNI as far as I know.  I can't think of any examples in which you can, at least.  Your average person is probably using their commlink, receiving the majority of their information via AR, without any accessories like gloves and a trode net.  Trodes are so cheap though, a lot of people will use them.  A step up from that is the ubiquitous datajack, which most wageslaves have installed.  This allows Joe Wageslave to work faster and more efficiently via VR, so it's a reasonable expense to many people.  If you're a kid or feeling rather retro, you go with the AR gloves and other non-invasive accessories.